Mora, Bobcats Sweep Wildcats During Record-Setting Opening Weekend

By Kyle Owen

Sports Reporter

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State Baseball (3-0) proved why its home is called “Slam Marcos” by blasting 13 home runs in route to sweeping a power-five squad and Big 10 Conference foe, Northwestern (0-3), by a combined score of 56-18 during opening weekend at Bobcat Ballpark.

The 56 runs scored in the weekend by the maroon and gold was record-breaking; no other Bobcat Baseball team has ever scored that many runs in a weekend series.  On Sunday, the Bobcats broke not only the run record but also the home run record in a single game as they blasted eight of them beyond the fences in Bobcat Ballpark against the Wildcats of Northwestern – the previous record was set in 2021, against Houston, with seven homers in a game.

The tying and record-breaking home runs were both achieved by freshman-newcomer, Chase Mora, who in his first and only three at-bats in the weekend were blasted out of Bobcat Ballpark.  Mora completed the nearly impossible feat with a grand slam for the eighth and final home run of the game on Sunday.

“It’s awesome,” Mora said.  “It’s an unbelievable moment.  I knew going into [the at-bat], they were talking about it in the dugout, … when I connected and saw it went out, I was like, ‘I did it,’ it’ll be a moment I’ll never forget.”

Head Coach Steven Trout, surprisingly enough, wasn’t shocked when Mora did what he did.  Trout knew that the player he recruited was going to come out and get the job done when he gave his name a call.

“We’ve always known he’s a stud,” Trout said.  “He’s just a gamer, he’s just a really really good player. He seems to always have been the MVP of every tournament he plays.  And so far, with three at-bats and three homers; that’s pretty good percentages.  I think he wants to hit some more for us.  That was just really awesome.  I’ve seen it in the first at-bat, but not all three.”

It’s hard to put into words how dominant his team was over the weekend, but Coach Trout knew that it wasn’t easy for his squad to perform the way they did, for all three games, putting up record-breaking numbers.

“A lot of runs, a lot of good things happened,” Trout said.  “That’s hard to do three days in a row … they came in and had great approaches from the very start through the very end … [I’m] really proud how they came out this weekend.”

The Bobcat offense, scoring 56 runs, is nothing to scoff about, but Coach Trout knows it’s a long season and, well, complacency kills.

“If we continue this, we’ll be the best hitting team in the entire country [ever],” Trout said.  “We know it’s not going to go like this forever, so I just told the team ‘you’ve got to take the momentum, but it’s a work week’ … obviously what we’ve been doing has been working but, as soon as you get complacent in this game it’ll humble you.  So, you’ve got to go back to work and make sure you’re ready to go for the next weekend.”

At the end of the day, even with records broken, the Bobcats got the sweep and it’s not easy to do, regardless of the opponent, especially when it’s a power-five school.

“Winning’s hard,” Trout said.  “Winnings hard no matter who you play, it seems to be bigger when you beat the power-five.  But, anytime you sweep somebody, that’s really hard to do – I’m really proud of how our guys just showed up each and every day with their energy, effort, and (obviously) their execution of the gameplan.”

After their record-breaking weekend against the Wildcats, the Bobcat Baseball team will be back in action next weekend against Oral Roberts (4-0), off to its first 4-0 start since 2009, in a three-game series beginning Friday, February 24, at 6:30 p.m. at Bobcat Ballpark.

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“Mora’s Debut Homerun,” Radio Call by Bill Schoening and Kyle Owen (2/18/23)